Toy Review: Beast Hunters DLX Smokescreen

[griffin]

(Please post photos, comments or even a fully comprehensive review - these are just brief details to get you started)

Series - Transformers Prime
Sub-line - Beast Hunters
Size/class - Deluxe
Wave - 2
New/remould/redeco - New
Released here - not yet (globally March 2013)
Approximate Retail Price - $23-$30 (US$15 in America)
Approximate Size - 14cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Sports Car with detachable armour
Main Features/Gimmicks - splotchy plastic colour, spiky
Main Colours - white, blue, red, black
Main Accessories - shield/missile launcher, missile, shoulder armour

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Wow surprised there isn't more here on this guy, although I assume that is due to his total lack of local release.

got mine today and I gots ta say it's pretty good. The armour looks like pants in robot mode, but isn't so bad for the car. nice to see that his joints are relatively unrestricted so he has a great amount of movement available to him. nice light piping eyeballs, big solid feet, though lacking any articulation at the ankles.

Vehicle mode is sleek and sexy. Transformation is interesting, as it differs from the old bonnet of car becoming chest of robot, roof becoming back routine it is also fairly obvious, although I did spend the majority of my time working out the exact position his arms needed to be in to fit the car together properly, which was a pain in the ass. Instructions are pretty useless, but nothing new there.

I likey!

[CBratron]

He's good, much better than the Knockout repaint.
But he still needs a bit of touch up as he's missing the red from his head and shoulders.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I bought the Go! version. His paint job is far superior to the Beast Hunters version, especially on the doors.

He doesn't come with the armor, but I almost see that as a win because I've hated pretty much all of the Beast Hunters armor, and none of it ended up appearing in the cartoon anyway.

Transformation is very intuitive, until it comes to getting that last arm in place - then you have to dick around for a few minutes until you can get it all to join up properly.

The robot mode looks very good, as CBratron said, much better than the Knock Out repaint (and I wasn't a big fan of that mold anyway). Paint job on the Go! version, like previously stated, is awesome! Very sexy vehicle mode, really low set sports car, looks like he was built for speed! The missile you can put in the roof looks kinda out of place, but then still a lot more sensible than the armor from the BH version.

Overall, except for one fiddly bit of Transformation, very happy with this figure!

[GoktimusPrime]

Ironically I paid 1985JPY ($21: $25 w/ postage) for my TFGo! Smokescreen. I agree that it has a better colour scheme, and the additional armour has no appeal to me, so I don't miss it.

I also found getting the arms and roof panels into place to quite fiddly. Overall this toy is pretty ordinary. Is it better than the Knock Out redeco? Sure, in terms of being an original mould that better reflects Smokescreen's on-screen character design. But in terms of engineering and design, I think it's about on par. In fact, one could argue that the Knock Out design is better because it doesn't "cheat" by using faux bonnet chest kibble in robot mode (the vehicle's bonnet becomes the chest).

But yes, this mould is undeniably better than the Knock Out mould because this IS Smokescreen. The Knock Out mould never really suited this character. Plus, no stickers and no Arms Micron! It's not a bad toy, but I don't think it's great either. More recommended if you're a fan of the character, otherwise I'd recommend checking out someone else's figure for yourself IRL (or reading/watching more reviews) before deciding if this toy is for you.

I've taken pics comparing AM Smokscreen (L) w/ Go! Smokescreen (R):